PRE-CONFERENCE CONSULTATIONS

The Pre-Conference Consultations, which were held on Saturday and
Sunday, were opened by the Secretary-General of the Conference, Dr.
Nafis Sadik. Dr. Sadik welcomed the delegates to the ICPD and noted
that the Pre-Conference Consultations would forward recommendations
to the Conference on all procedural and organizational matters. The
Secretary-General proposed that Mohamed Adel El Safty, Assistant
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, be elected as Chair of the
Pre-Conference Consultations and his nomination was accepted.

A number of issues were considered during the two-day meeting.
Delegates recommended to the Conference the adoption of the
provisional rules of procedure, as contained in document
A/CONF.171/2. With respect to the election of officers, the
recommendations concerning the composition of the General
Committee, and the distribution of the posts therein, were
endorsed. The proposal to recommend to the Conference the election
of His Excellency Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, for
the post of President of the Conference was accepted. With respect
to the election of the members of the Bureau, the Chairs of the
Asian Group and the Eastern European Group indicated that
negotiations were still ongoing and that the Vice-Chairs had not
yet been designated. The Latin American Group nominated Brazil,
Mexico, Uruguay, Suriname and Venezuela. The States designated by
the Western European and Others Group as Vice-Chairs were Malta,
Denmark, Finland, Germany, Canada and Greece. Nigeria, on behalf of
the African Group, nominated Zambia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria,
Senegal and the Central African Republic for the six of their
seven posts. The Chair indicated that negotiations were still in
process regarding the designation of the Rapporteur-General and the
Chair of the Main Committee.

There was no objection to the recommendation that the agenda be
adopted and the participants also agreed that the general debate
should be extended in Plenary until the afternoon of Monday,
September 12. Each delegation will be allowed to make one general
statement that will be limited to ten minutes for the governmental
delegations, seven minutes for IGOs, UN agencies and regional
organizations, and five minutes for NGOs. The delegates agreed that
participants of the Main Committee would designate three vice
chairs and a rapporteur and the Chair expressed hope that agreement
would be reached before the opening of the Conference so that their
election can be carried out by acclamation.

The Chair also indicated that the proposed timetable, as contained
in the annex of document A/CONF.171/3, may have to be adjusted and
that conference services could be provided for only two
simultaneous meetings in the morning and the afternoon. The Main
Committee may establish subcommittees and working groups, but only
to the extent that conference services are available on site. The
meeting recommended that the following States would comprise the
Credentials Committee of the Conference: Austria, the Bahamas,
China, Cte d'Ivoire, Ecuador, Mauritius, the Russian Federation,
Thailand and the US, and also recommended the accreditation of the
intergovernmental organizations listed in A/CONF.171/8. In
addition, it was noted that the PrepCom for ICPD had accredited
over 900 NGOs at its three sessions, and the accreditation of the
NGOs, as listed in A/CONF.171/7 and Add.1, was recommended.

The Secretariat suggested a possible time-frame for discussions on
the various chapters of the programme. Algeria, on behalf of the
G-77 and China, and Germany, on behalf on the EU, noted that
delegations will have to be given the time and opportunity to hold
further consultations. The Chair asked delegates for their comments
on the possibility of adopting a final declaration. Austria said
that this practice is neither customary nor infrequent and added
that a more succinct version of the Programme of Action could be
useful. Argentina said that the developing countries wished to
discuss this issue within the context of G-77 consultations and The
Gambia asked if the ICPD Secretariat had prepared a draft
Declaration or if the Conference itself would have to do it. The
Chair said that there was no draft at this point and that it was
still unclear who would draft it. The Pre-Conference Consultations
adopted paragraph 20 of document A/CONF.171/3, which recommends
that friends of the Rapporteur-General be designated by each
regional group to help him with the preparation of the final
report. The Pre-Conference recommendations will be forwarded to the
Conference on Monday in document A/CONF.171/L.2.

Regarding the election of the Chair of the Main Committee, Gabon,
on behalf of the African Group, nominated Dr. Fred Sai (Ghana) as
Chair of the Main Committee. Algeria, on behalf of G-77 and China,
also supported the nomination of Dr. Sai.

With respect to other matters (Item 10 of document A/CONF.171/3),
the Chair asked for delegates' comments on the non-paper issued by
the Secretariat on Saturday. Canada suggested a reorganization of
the order in which the Main Committee will review the chapters of
the Programme of Action. After a further amendment suggested by the
Russian Federation, the following schedule was recommended:

Night sessions are planned for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday evenings. Canada said that this new organization of the
work would allow decisions to be taken in working groups, if the
need arose. The EU said that it had agreed to the Chair's previous
schedule and had not had time for informal consultations, but
agreed to this reorganization.